Literature Circle Book
State of Fear
Book by Michael Crichton
By Sabryne Fattouh
1
George Morton’s house, Los Angeles
This is the house of the millionaire, philanthropist George Morton.
It’s located within Holmby Hills and as described in the book, the part of
Beverly Hills in which the rich people live. The street is hidden in foliage,
and the security cameras are painted green to blend in. George’s house is
a Mediterranean-style villa, and cream colored. The house is also large
enough to accommodate a family of ten.
I think this
represents George
Morton's house
because in the
book it was
described as a
large cream
colored villa.
2
Peter Evan’s apartment, Los Angeles
Peter’s apartment is slightly messy, and a bit old.
He usually doesn’t have any food in his fridge and
doesn’t really care. If there is food in the apartment
it’s usually junk food and coffee. It’s an apartment
that Peter always means to remodel but never really
gets to it. All of the furniture seems to be
mismatched, and all come from completely random
places.
3
I think this represents Peter
Evans apartment well because
his furniture doesn’t really fit the
space or match.
Weddell Station, Antarctica
The Weddell Station is a series of buildings,
apparently smack in the middle of no where in
Antarctica. The buildings are described as over
sized children’s building blocks. This is most
likely because they’ll be easier to see in the
midst of a blizzard.
4
I think this represents
the Weddell Station
because it was
described as looking
like children’s building
blocks.
On a jet or airplane
One of the main settings always seems to
be on an unspecified jet or airplane, but they
are always high quality equipped with beds or
seats that recline all the way back, showers,
and stewards/ stewardess's. The planes are
never public planes so they have the whole
area to them selves
5
I think this
represents the
several jets well
because its what
most jets look
like.
Peter Evans
Peter is a 28 year old lawyer that works for
the Los Angeles Hassle and Black run by
George Morton. He is described as awkward,
sometimes childish in bad times. His
personality changes sometime in the middle
of the book during one of the rising actions.
He then becomes more manly, and his age.
Peter is one of the four main protagonists, he
is dynamic.
6
I think this picture represents
Peter well because he young,
and he’s a lawyer so it would
make sense that he owned a
brief case.
Sarah Jones
Sarah is a young blond lady, that works for
George Morton as an assistant. She’s friendly,
and keeps guys on their feet. She is one of the
main four protagonists, and static. She is an
eventual love interest for Peter Evans.
7
I think this picture
represents Sarah well
because she’s really sweet
but can kick butt if she
needs to.
John Kenner
John is a peculiar man that appeared from
no where. He’s 39 years old, has gray hair, and
wears glasses. He’s a know-it-all and gets on
most peoples nerves. His main goal in the
book is to stop NERF's malevolent doings. Him
being mysterious and having a companion
reminds me somewhat if Sherlock Holmes.
He’s one of the main four protagonists, and he
is static.
8
Though John looks nothing like Robert
his personality is Sherlock on every level,
and it would be ridiculous to deny he
may be Sherlock Holmes in disguise
Sanjong Thapa
Sanjong is Indian, but speaks with a British
accent. He is an ex soldier. He accompanies
John Kenner as an assistant and reminds me
somewhat of John Watson. He is one of the
main four protagonists, and he is static.
9
Yet again, though
Sanjong looks
nothing like Jude
their personalities
correlate so well.
Nicholas Drake
Nicholas Drake is a thin scholarly looking man.
His hair is thinning he has a pinched nose but his
personality in one word is… spaz. He does a poor
job of hiding his anger toward colleagues when
yelling at his workers. Seemingly EVERYTHING
needs to go his way. Nick is the main antagonist,
and he is static. Nick is head of NERF. He is part of
a global conspiracy to generate artificial weatherrelated disasters. The disasters are meant to scare
people into believing global warming is real.
10
I think this picture represents Nick well
because the book describes him as a
scholarly looking man.
George Morton
George is a 65 year old, millionaire
philanthropist. He is a beloved character that
leaves clues after his death to help along the
four main characters. George Morton is a
minor protagonist, and he is dynamic.
11
I think this picture represents
George wonderfully, because
he’s wealthy, and just like in the
game of monopoly he’s tricky.
Jennifer Haines
• Jennifer is Kenner's niece and a lawyer working
on a NERF lawsuit; her role is one part antiGlobal-Warming-evidence-provider and one part
possible love interest for Peter. Jennifer is quick
to argue if she doesn’t like you, and to defend
herself if she’s threatened. Jennifer is a minor
protagonist, and she is static.
12
I think Buttercup represents Jennifer
well because she is tough, and doesn’t
take attitude from anyone.
Foreshadowing
To indicate a warning
for what is to come, usually in a story
• “The woman was petite and strikingly beautiful, with dark hair and
an exotic look […] the man who accompanied her couldn’t have
been more different. […] He was as big as a football player.” (pg.
126) In the first chapter of the book a young physicist in Paris was
murdered by these two, that play a role where the man is mean to
the woman and their target intervenes. The target then gets taken
by the woman and paralyzed by a venom, then is dropped in to a
lake to drown, or left to die. This is foreshadowing because the man
in the first chapter has an almost exact description of them. A
minor character then gets targeted but this gets intervened by the
targets assistant.
• On page 118 the short chapter starts off with a very minor
character getting killed by an odd lightning strike. This is
foreshadowing because the main antagonist has created a machine
that takes in the atmosphere around it and produces lighting which
is then used in an attempt to kill two main characters, but fails.
13
Simile
To compare one thing to another using the words like or as
• An example of a simile is, “Evans felt like he was in a
boat, crashing through choppy seas.” This is an
example of a simile because it is comparing the bumpy
iced road of Antarctica to a boat out in the sea. The
simile says that the ride was bumpy. Pg 226
• Another example of a simile is, “Trudging toward
structures that looked like over sized children’s blocks.”
This is an example of a simile because it is comparing
buildings, to the building blocks a child would play
with. The simile says that the buildings are huge,
square or rectangular, and brightly colored. Pg 220
14
Metaphor
To compare one thing to another, not using the words like or as
• An example of a metaphor is, “She was just
fishing for compliments.” The girl in this sentence
did not physically go out to fish, she was
manipulating a person into complimenting her.
• Another example of a metaphor is, “I’m feeling
blue today.” The person in this sentence doesn’t
actually feel like a color, they just use that color
to represent sadness. Therefore the person in this
sentence is sad.
15
Alliteration
An alliteration is using the same letter in the beginning of a word multiple times in a
sentence to describe something.
• An example of alliteration is, “Hannah’s hat
has hearts on it.” This is alliteration because
the sentence is describing the hat of Hannah,
and it’s repeating the letter H.
• Another example of alliteration is, “Peter’s
piano played potently.” This is an alliteration
because the sentence is describing the way
Peter’s piano sounds, and it’s repeating the
letter P.
16
Imagery
A description of an object that is so vivid it engages you senses so it’s almost as if you were there
• An example of imagery is, “It was enormous, as wide as the eye
could see, a foaming line of surf, a white arc spreading as it came
toward the beach.” This is imagery because it’s vividly describing
how the tsunami coming in looked. Pg 607
• “The jungle slid beneath them, mile after mile of dense canopy
forest. In places, wisps of mist clung to the trees, particularly at the
higher altitudes.” This is imagery because it shows how vast the
jungle was and how high up the helicopter was so that they could
see the mist coming off the top of the trees. Pg 562
• “The music was so loud it felt as if it was vibrating my body all the
way down to my bones.” This is imagery because it tells you how
loud the music was in a way that you could feel it.
17
Personification
The process of giving human like qualities to an animal, object or thought
• An example of personification would be, “The
wind whispered past us.” This is personification
because the wind can’t whisper, but it’s
explaining how the wind went gently past them.
• Another example of personification would be,
“Time flew, and before we knew it, we had to go
home.” This is an example of personification
because time can’t jump out the window and fly,
it means that the time seemed to go by quickly.
18
Onomatopoeia
To describe something that made a noise with a made up word.
• An example of an onomatopoeia would be, “With a bang!
the front door slammed open and the three men burst into
the bedroom.” This is an onomatopoeia because “bang” is
the noise the door made as it slammed open. Pg 13
• Another example of an onomatopoeia would be, “BZZZZZ,
went the bee as it flew away happily from the flower.” This
is an onomatopoeia because “BZZZZZ” is the noise the bee
made.
• Yet another example of an onomatopoeia would be,
“BRIIIIING! Went the alarm clock as I struggled to turn it
off.” This is an example of an onomatopoeia because
“BRIIIIING” bring is the noise the alarm clock made as it
rang.
19
Rising Action 1
Rising action is the part of a story that leads to a suspenseful moment
The story starts of in Paris, Nord when a physicist performs an oceanographic experiment to show
off for a beautiful girl he just met. He becomes paralyzed from venom registered by a small octopus. He
then gets dumped into a river by the girl, and is left to drown. The next scene starts off with a
mysterious man buying hypersonic technology in the jungles of Malaysia. This equipment has the ability
to topple mountains with sound. Next in Vancouver, Canada a business man rents a small research
submarine.
Peter gets summoned along with Sarah to George’s house to meet two mysterious men by the
names of John, and Sanjong. A several days later Peter gets called by George Morton to go down to
Culver City and see how the lawsuit he was currently working on was going. Unexpectedly he gets tested
on his knowledge of global warming, is told he’s wrong and gets corrected. He confusedly leaves, and
goes on a date with Jennifer. A few days later he goes down to work and gets confronted by Nick,
George’s colleague. He then manipulates him into thinking that John Kenner is a bad person, and that
George should not be talking to him. The next day George gets confronted by the mysterious woman in
the first chapter at a coffee shop. The woman’s plans then get thwarted by the arrival of Sarah.
A few days later Peter goes to a banquet about global warming that is run by Nick. When a
drunken George makes a speech at the podium he makes a fool of himself. George is making a fool of
himself for an unknown reason but the whole thing is later revealed as staged by George and John.
George leaves after his news worthy speech and is escorted out by a puzzled Peter. He and George push
through the crowd of reporters. George tells Peter a saying, “All that matters is not remote from where
the Buddha sits”. He then gets into his car drives away, and crashes. A series of robberies happen
between the main characters, and they get followed.
The next day Peter gets called down to George’s house by Sarah. Sarah questions Peter about
what happened the night of George’s death. Peter tells Sarah the saying and the Buddha statue catches
Sarah’s eye. They go inspect it and find an envelope. They then get ambushed by two men that demand
the envelope, who are then taken to jail by John and Sanjong who were hiding. The open the envelope
and find a receipt for the statue. John inspects the room and finds papers revealing coordinates within
the remotes on George’s desk.
20
Climax 1
Climax is a suspenseful moment
They then leave Los Angeles and proceed to the first location
which is Antarctica. They meet an imposter who claims to be Jimmy
Bolden. He takes Peter, John, and Sarah out to another imposter’s
scientist’s (James Brewster) camp to see what he’s up to and find a
series of explosives in a line that all have a detonation time to
fracture the ice, and make it appear that the ice in Antarctica is
melting. John then follows the line of explosives to find the man
impersonating him and Jimmy takes Peter and Sarah back to camp
where he then leads them across the thin ice.
Sarah and Peter’s car falls through and gets suspended
between two ice walls. They then escape and try to go back to the
Weddell Station but they quickly get frost bite and lose
consciousness. They get saved by a NASA robot roaming the area.
21
Falling Action 1
Falling action is what happens after the climax and how things changed because of it
On the plane ride back to Los Angeles John gives Peter a bug to put
in his phone and sends him to go do whatever he pleases. Kenner and
Sarah follow the James, and Jimmy to a place where they test new planes.
Kenner and Sarah go into the building and spy on two men. They watch as
mechanically made lightning hits a plane engine. When they think the two
men leave they go and see what it was that was producing the lightning.
The men come back and trap them in the testing area and turn on the
machine. John and Sarah get on the ground to try to elude the lightning
strikes; they both end up living and leave as soon as the test is over.
Peter walks into his apartment to find a private investigator sitting on
his couch paralyzed from the octopus venom. The man can tap his fingers
and he and Peter communicate awkwardly. The man brought Peter DVD’s
from a hidden camera set up in Nick’s office. The man then gets taken by
an ambulance and Peter gets questioned. Peter then goes to Nick’s office
and tells him what John told him to say.
22
Rising Action 2
Rockets are being used to create bigger rain clouds
at a state park in Los Angeles during a children’s school
event. This will flood the waterfall and kill hundreds of
people. John, Peter, Sanjong, and Sarah all go to stop it.
Peter and Sarah are in one car and they get boxed
in by a truck and a car. The truck has the device used to
generate lightning. They soon learn from John that
their radios are bugged, so that the lightning is being
generated towards them. Kenner and Sanjong get rid of
their radios. John, Sanjong, Peter and Sarah now have
no way of communicating.
23
Climax 2
One of Peters tires go flat while they were trying to escape the
car and truck that were boxing them in so they go into the forest.
Peter and Sarah still have the radio and Sarah gets struck by
lightning a few times and passes out. Peter has to take her back for
medical attention and one third of the rockets that they were
supposed to stop from going of get fired into the sky.
Kenner gets to his location and faces lots of armed men, and
his rockets go off but he escapes. Sanjong crashes his car in attempt
to get away from men shooting at him. He gets into a truck and
goes back to the part of the park by the water fall. Sarah, and Peters
car gets carried away by water and they gets caught in branches.
They get out of the car and climb up the tree. They all are safe but
the flood raced on.
24
Falling Action 2
Peter now acts more manly now according
to Sarah, and seems less of a wimp. Peter says
that he feels different as if the exposure to
fighting and killing, and trying to be killed
made him different. He knew that fighting
happened everywhere, but he didn’t know to
what extent it happened, and to see it with his
own eyes changed him.
25
Rising Action 3
Several days later Peter gets a call from Janis who demands she come over
despite the fact Peter doesn’t want her too. Peter goes to take a shower when he
gets hit with something. He looks around to see men hired by Nick to kill him using
the small octopus. They promptly leave, and Peter slowly climbs on to a chair. When
Janis arrives he is completely paralyzed. Janis doesn’t have her cell phone and
Peter’s landlines have been smashed. Sarah arrives and sees Peter, then calls and
calls an ambulance. Peter gets taken to the hospital and recovers quickly. When he
wakes up he sees that John, Sarah, and Sanjong are there and explained to him what
happened.
Only five hour later Peter and Sarah have to go to another banquet being held
by Nick about the dangers of global warming. Nick hires an actor Ted Bradley and
wife of a lawyer Ann Garner to not leave Peter or Sarah’s side. A man named
Norman Hoffman who was invited by George wasn’t being allowed in so Peter went
to go talk to him.
Norman went on a giant theoretical journey and never stopped talking about
the state of fear and how humans are constantly in it. How the media has made us
believe that things are getting worse when really things have been the same but
they’re just romanticizing it. Then Ted comes by and says that Sarah needs him.
They drive down to the airport and Ann, Ted, Sanjong, John, Peter, Sarah, and
Jennifer all go down to Honolulu, Hawaii. An outbreak of cannibalistic rebels have
spread out over the entire area of Gareda, and they need to stop a tsunami from the
small explosives under water, and the hypersonic cavitation generators. This tsunami
would travel to the coast of Los Angeles. The cannibals are too much for Ann so she
gets back on the plane and goes to Los Angeles. The rest of them get on a helicopter
and travel down to Resolution Bay.
26
Climax 3
All but Sanjong (who is nowhere to be found) get
caught by the rebels and get tied up. Ted Bradley gets taken
first beaten to almost unconsciousness and watches as he
gets eaten alive. The rest of them escape with the help of a
thin, bearded George Morton.
They walk down to Resolution Bay with little
ammunition. A huge fight between the rebels and the rest
of the characters goes on. Peter manages to stop the
cavitation generator from going off so the only tsunami
produce is at Resolution Bay.
Sanjong copes with climbing up a steep hill, while
everybody else drives most of the way up to safety from
the waves. They all get back on the helicopter and go back
to Honolulu.
27
Falling action 3
Sanjong copes with climbing up a steep
hill, while everybody else drives most of the
way up to safety from the waves. They wait for
the last waves to pass and go look for the
helicopter. They all get on the helicopter and
travel back to Honolulu.
28
Conflict
• Protagonists vs. Everybody who believes in
global warming, Group vs. Society
• Jennifer vs. Sarah in a fight for Peter, Man vs.
Man
• Ted vs. Protagonists, Man vs. Group
• Protagonist vs. Rebels, Group vs. Group
• Peter vs. Peter in deciding on Jennifer or Sarah
Man vs. Self
29
Theme
I believe the theme is don’t believe everything you hear. I think
this book tells the reader that the media does over romanticize
things to a certain extent, and that it’s okay to be a skeptic.
An example to support this statement is on page 293. “He saw
two co-anchors, a man and a woman. The man was explaining that
even more dramatic was a study that showed that the Greenland
ice cap was going to melt entirely away. That would cause sea levels
to rise twenty feet. ‘So, I guess good-bye Malibu!’ the anchor said
cheerfully. ‘Of course it wouldn’t happen for a few years yet. But it’s
coming unless we change our ways.’”
Another example is when Peter was questioning Jennifer
about how the media was just showing you recent studies and how
they made the scale of the graph very small so the incline seemed
tremendous though the rise of temperature was only .5 degrees in
100 years, and so on with the rest of the graphs.
30
Resolution
Resolution is what occurs after the final
falling action. This usually part of the book
usually explains what happens to the
dynamic characters and how they’ve
changed. The resolution doesn’t necessarily
mean that the problem is solved, (though it
may be) it just means that the plot line is
different than it was before and the problem
has changed.
31
Citations
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32
This is the picture of the landscape of Antarctica
http://stylecrave.frsucrave.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/chalon-road-house11.jpg This is the picture of George Morton’s house
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FncofyIza-Q/TlFpn1ByS0I/AAAAAAAABOs/Cn7oYr2XgTQ/s1600/lightning2.jpg This is the picture of the lightning
http://s3.media.squarespace.com/production/409985/4587079/two_wishes/images/2007/12/13/288_emptybig.jpg This is the backgrounds of Peter Evans apartment
http://the20somethingsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/rug.jpg This is the rug in Peter Evans apartment
http://beingamillionaire.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/dk_brown_sofa_1159917538.jpg This is the couch in Peter Evans apartment
http://www.knoll.com/db_alt_media/7000/6814_pp.jpg This is the picture of the chair is Peter Evans apartment
http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/03/slow_white_table_plain.jpg This is the picture of the table in Peter Evans apartment
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TAHGGCx1oeg/TSEO6PMLIcI/AAAAAAAAADQ/jgXk255jJ58/s1600/download-25.jpg This is the picture of the jet
http://www.how-to-draw-funny-cartoons.com/image-files/cartoon-lawyer-008.jpg This is the picture of Peter Evans
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120203232618/powerpuff/images/e/e4/Bubbles_kicking.jpg This is a picture of Bubbles
http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/7/78686/2129588-sherlock_holmes_2.jpg This is a picture of RDJ as Sherlock Holmes
http://www.comingsoon.net/nextraimages/holmesposter2.jpg This is a picture of Jude as John
http://rlv.zcache.com/cartoon_male_teacher_character_flyers-p244519334904461553b2pv5_400.jpg This is a picture of Nick Drake
http://venturevillage.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/rich-monopoly-man1.jpeg This is a picture of George Morton
http://images.wikia.com/powerpuff/images/3/32/Buttercup-is-on-top-powerpuff-girls-24270693-299-320.jpg This is a picture of Buttercup
http://images.clipartof.com/thumbnails/1047518-Royalty-Free-RF-Clip-Art-Illustration-Of-A-Cartoon-Man-Frozen-In-The-Spotlight-At-A-Podium.jpg This is the picture of the man on the
stage
http://us.cdn2.123rf.com/168nwm/malchev/malchev1110/malchev111000001/10826592-set-of-3-cartoon-rockets-in-2-versions--no-transparency-used-basic-linear-gradients.jpg This is the picture of
the rockets
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ho6lFE7Fsfk/TJaoa_BqGXI/AAAAAAAAAQY/Yoi7PM2B2xI/s1600/cartoon_man_in_jungle.jpg This is the picture of the man walking in the jungle
http://earthdata.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2009_antarctica_landscape.jpg